Councils always skint but if they are all as bad as Fife council they paid 21 million sick leave in 20-21 went up the next year and it will be even higher now
Long term sick leave if you're in construction or work in a bike shop you have no chance, everyone gets stressed from time to time but can just take a wee paid holiday
You should see my home town Glastonbury. There are over 100 caravans in various stages of decay .The town has become a magnet for non travelling travellers to pitch up from all corners of the country with no intention of contributing to conventional society.The approach to the town from the West passes an old factory that shut in 1982 , instead of flattening it and starting from scratch millions have been spent on consultants and most of it is still there in various stages of decay . The car park resembles something off of Mad Max .
The local council are Green , they've just been given another £23 million from central government in a " town deal " Most of the schemes planned aren't for the benefit of people who were born and grew up there .One project is now on hold because of concerns over how the money is being spent.
Most of the problem is there isn't enough willingness from the townsfolk to stand for council and oust the Greens . So I guess you get what you deserve?
Makes me sad to see the state of the place but also glad I moved 3 miles down the road .
"My thread is pretty much a lone voice nowadays."
FWIW, view just done my litter picking patch. Usually take away garbage and energy drinks with a smattering of empty alcohol bottles.
"Councils always skint but if they are all as bad as Fife council they paid 21 million sick leave in 20-21 went up the next year and it will be even higher now"
Yeh, but they did eventually build a small wooden footbridge in Aberdour for 1/3 of a million pounds...
Isn't this the problem in Scotland, you elected the SNP who knew how to campaign for independence but not how to run services and get value for money.
They did seem quite adept at buying camper vans.
We are lucky round here, the parish council for our village pays someone to litter pick, the village where our Scout hut is located use it as a base for community litter picks every couple of months, another nearby village which attracts a lot of the weed smoking boy racers as its on the way through to a country park, the village pub runs clean ups with a free drink if you fill a sack of rubbish .
This years "rewilding" by the council has caused more complaints than any other issue, according to a councillor friend. Some junctions became really dangerous as they got so overgrown. No sympathy for parents complaining their kids couldn't play in open spaces because the grass was too long - best places to play I reckon.
But gutters and drains on the edge of roads piss me off when they are left. With more heavy rain and flash flooding looking like our future, they need to be kept clear, and lettings grow in the gutters increases the damage to tne road surface. I don't think the A6 between Belper and Cromford has seen a road sweeper in the 22 years we've lived here, need a digger to scrape off the crap that's accumulated.
As someone up thread mentioned there seems to be an attitude that someone else will come along to clear up your mess. My wife asked me had litter always been a problem in England after she returned from a trip to Vancouver which she thought was spotless. I remember the Keep Britain Tidy campaign and I'm certain it did have a positive impact at the time. I live next to the South Downs and the dog shit bags are so depressing. I can't fathom how people think it's ok to leave them instead of taking them to a bin or home. Curious to know if this is a peculiarly British problem.
I have a couple of hundred meters of frontage onto the road and I clean it once or twice a year. The amount of rubbish I collect is depressing really, however I think it's partly down to the rubbish trucks. You may not notice when it's on the road, but when ours is collected (recycling particularly) our drive, which is also long, is often strewn with rubbish after . I wonder how much the rubbish trucks dispense onto the verges.
My wife asked me had litter always been a problem in England after she returned from a trip to Vancouver which she thought was spotless.
You can walk about 3 minutes from Gastown - an immensely popular tourist attraction to East Hastings and see a slum running the entire length of the street, drug users selling their garbage diving crap in doorways.
Cambridge used to be a lovely well kept city but is now looking very tired. The parks were once beautiful but now have been re-wilded and look uncared for. Verges and gutters are all overgrown. It’s not only civic areas though, houses and gardens don’t seem cared for any more, possibly because many are rented and there is no investment in caring for them. Contrast it with Bury St. Edmunds just up the road which still has a beautiful park and seems generally tidier. I don’t know why, maybe it’s different pots of money being used differently.
This might be a bit of a blurry photo, but it shows GWR park in Swindon in 1919 or 1920. Lots of litter on the ground, probably paper so it wouldn't have been as bad as the current plastic waste, but it shows that it always been a problem. I think that dog muck on the pavements used to be worse in the 20th century than it is now, but we now seem to have more take-away rubbish..
We took the wrong route back into Vancouver via Gastown and drove through that area, what a contrast to the rest of Vancouver, what an eye -opener.
Spa circuit two weeks ago a few folk there to watch the GP and no litter to be seen all put in bags, staying in Maastricht just over the border in Holland again puts UK to shame as to how clean the streets were
‘Legal’ cannabis in the Netherlands, and barely a trace of litter (apart from the plastic drinks bottles in the canals). Go figure.
you’ll probably never ban alcohol, but at least you can try to mitigate the skank, inherent to floor polish (other brands of booze are available) by legalising skunk and weed.
as for dog mess, the canines locate toilet areas by use of smell.
when people let their dogs crap on the pavement, it gets washed away, so they have to find another random place to crap.
better for the councils to cordon off small parts of land to let dogs run and poop.
Keep it familiar for the dogs.
afaik, that’s how it’s done in nyc.
It would be nice if our local council would empty the bins frequently enough. They’re often overflowing. Surely that’s got to be worth sorting out rather than paying to clean it up later on.
I think lots of the issues are cultural. Litter - because so many people don't care. This then extends to keeping anything nearer or looking after your stuff. This then extends into corporate life - I'm moving my son out his staff accommodation at a national hotel this morning, and the place is an unmaintained mess (guests and staff). This extends to councils and companies charged with maintaining our public spaces and and the 'bare minimum' culture coupled with our oddball 'only qualified in one trade' approach to things.
It's something that's been growing for years
But I would still rather see so many more trees, shrubs, grass and flowers than the endless moon grass deserts we seem to love in the UK.
Depends where you live. Very little graffiti and close to zero litter here. Apart from a few teenagers nobody drops it and locals pick it up.All the council does is empty the bins.
Local roads have ongoing program of proper resurfacing. Not just patching or top dressing.
New £42m pool and sports center opened last year. Good local schools.
NHS dentists. Same day GP appointments when required.
30min taxi to airport. 1 hour drive to the southern edge of the Highlands.
Highest life expectancy in Scotland for males. Second highest for females
Some of the advantages are due to the relative prosperity of the area. On the other hand it costs nothing not to drop litter or to pick it up.
…that’s a catalyst for crime and antisocial behaviour which feeds into a cycle of decline
What’s the evidence for a causal link in that direction?
We can afford to build shiny new things but not to then maintain them
see ‘austerity’. Several folks have mentioned this. Also, maintenance isn’t the capitalist way. Just lots more ‘new and improved’.
The shift of lots of parks’ maintenance from teams of professionals from the council to bunches of volunteers is noticeable here. It has had some benefits - parks are more individual in appearance, more perennial planting seems to be there. And, more wildflowers.
General litter is something a few folks have commented on. Certainly, lots of folks seem to think it’ll just dissipate if they throw their trash on the street. For those of us who know better we can always pick some up and dispose of it properly.
don’t be too hasty to judge litterbugs though. I regularly walk in local parks. One morning I went in and saw litter all around the, fairly full, bins. I assumed it was folks too lazy to push the stuff down or too lazy to take it home. Wrong! A subsequent morning I saw a couple of magpies alternating in standing on the rim of the bin and dropping down into to it to throw rubbish out and pick over it for food. Fun! Though pesky that they did not tidy up after themselves.
We were in Ireland this summer, Kilkenny and Wicklow areas and it seemed like there was very little litter. There also seemed to be far fewer fast food outlets. I also noticed a few places which had lovely flower beds along road sides and roundabouts that were planted up with lots of flowers. I remember seeing signs at one beach, I think they asked you to pick up three pieces of litter, it's just a little thing but if lots of us do a little bit...
Welsh Boarders - a McDonalds opened in the local nearest town probably 7 miles away. Rubbish is now thrown out of car windows on our local roads.
We have a local green lane. Apparently the locals used to keep it all trimmed back and you could get a 4x4 down it, now you cant even walk down it.
The silly hedgerow cutting laws dont help, only certain times of the year you can cut hedgerows which means they all have to be done in the space of about 1 week.
Its also very very expensive to get people out these days to cut down tress etc. Our neighbours land is getting ridiculous, but they cant afford to get anyone to sort it out. They would also struggle to find someone to sort it out
Its crows in my local park that scavenged the bins. The bins have recently been changed to 'crow proof designs'.
Collected a bag this morning - I expected more because of the nice weather. Gives me something to do whilst Bert is sniffin'n'pissin
The one that pissed me off yesterday - riding up the main road from Hathersage to Sheffield, there was a load of domestic waste dumped in a layby. Maybe half a wheeliebin's worth. A couple of cardboad boxes, some carrier bags and some kind of kitchen appliance.
Someone had to load that into a vehicle, drive there (presumably at night), then unload it in the middle of a beauty spot before driving home again. Compared to just putting it in their bin at home. What goes through what passes for their minds? I mean, I'm generally anti- capital punishment, but will make exceptions...
(I can kind of understand fly-tipping commercial waste, as there's money to be made there. I hate it, and I'd gladly see the shards of broken toilet bowl inserted up the miscreants hoop; dry - but I can follow the logic that leads to the decision)
Rewilding. The idea of perfect alpine meadows full of flowers is great. What we actually end up with is scrubby unkempt monocultural grasslands, interspersed with Japanese Knotweed and Himalyan Balsam... We've done no-mow May/June on our grass/moss patch this last few years. It just looks a mess now, even when it does get cut. The jury is out...
Totally agree with you there. Our local clothing recycling bin seems to have morphed into a general dumping area for people too lazy to go to the tip and recycle stuff. There was a microwave dumped there last week along with loads of other crap. We walked by and noticed the microwave had gone, thought great, it will do someone a turn, only to notice a guy across the road with said microwave in his arms returning it to the dumping area as it obviously didn’t work! We will also get a random item just dumped anywhere on the estate. As for rewilding, great if done properly but it generally just looks a mess.
I went for a swim at the local river this morning. The picnic benches by the car park were covered in empty bottles and cans. That's not crows or magpies, that's dirty scummers too lazy to clean up after themselves.
It would be nice if our local council would empty the bins frequently enough. They’re often overflowing. Surely that’s got to be worth sorting out rather than paying to clean it up later on.
So you'd dump rubbish rather than just take it with you?
YOU are a part of the problem!
The silly hedgerow cutting laws dont help, only certain times of the year you can cut hedgerows
Which allows birds to nest and raise their young. Apologies for any inconvenience.
"The silly hedgerow cutting laws dont help, only certain times of the year you can cut hedgerows which means they all have to be done in the space of about 1 week."
Good - Imagine the open season on your tyres, hike a bike on roads lasting all year? Unfortunately plenty of hedge trimming was going on on my last visit to Ground Zero (hawthorn hedges everywhere and a hedge trimmer factory), during the nesting season. Gits!
Rewilding initiative is just local council code for doing nothing in the way of maintenance, allowing the place to go to wreck and ruin.
At least in the Netherlands, you receive 0.15 euros for every empty plastic bottle that goes into the machine.
its still only 5p at Lidls. Well, it’s a start.
As I walked around Amsterdam I tried to figure out why pretty much empty rubbish bins were surrounded by rubbish. Then I saw a down and out going through a bin full of rubbish hunting for 15cent bottles and scattering the rest of the rubbish around the bin.
The grotty ginnel - now a bit less tatty.
Anyone else doing something about it?
Picked up a can on the way to the pool and droped it into the bin. Not enough to need a sack around here.
"Anyone else doing something about it?"
Yep, I picked up a bin bag's worth of empty cans and bottles at Stony Stratford swim spot this morning. It's in the vague hope that people are less likely to litter if there's no litter then when they arrive.
Buildings have moved from proactive maintenance to reactive maintenance for a while now. It's like companies have never heard of "a stitch in time, saves nine"
Another thing I've seen is, letting a listed building degrade to such a state that the local authority asks the owner to demolish it, on the grounds of safety. Much cheaper building new than renovating a listed building.
Another one that the likes of Tesco etc do, is buy up the other potential supermarket sites around their stores, to stifle their rivals. These sites are often left derelict and neglected.
Another thing I’ve seen is, letting a listed building degrade to such a state that the local authority asks the owner to demolish it, on the grounds of safety. Much cheaper building new than renovating a listed building.
Often the older building has outlived its usefulness - look at an old farm, loads of old buildings rotting as they're no use anymore for machinery etc.
Cost-wise, we had to renovate an old barn rather than just knock it down and build a bungalow instead, twice the price.
At least in the Netherlands, you receive 0.15 euros for every empty plastic bottle that goes into the machine.
its still only 5p at Lidls. Well, it’s a start.
In Queensland we have a returns scheme. Bottles and cans are all 10c return and there are several ways to return them. I have a local depot so every few months I take them there load them onto a conveyor belt which counts them and gives me cash. We don't use many because we don't buy soft drinks and I brew beer and serve from a keg but it's quite horrific to see the thousands of cans some people get through. Lots of charities also ask people to donate them so they can collect the money. Plus you see people cleaning up the road verges to make a bit of cash.
The one that pissed me off yesterday – riding up the main road from Hathersage to Sheffield, there was a load of domestic waste dumped in a layby.
I will become rich once I invent a kind of landmine that somehow only targets flytippers.
One particularly egregious pile of crap I had to go around on my bike had obviously come from a restaurant/takeaway in the nearest big town being refitted out, as it also included some old menus. I thought it only fair to leave a Google review.
On the subject of overflowing bins - I read somewhere that you get less rubbish if you don't have bins at all than if you have them but can't keep up with emptying them. If there's no bin, the majority of people will take it home. If there is a bin, and its full, a large proportion of the population will dump their rubbish next to it, as "its not their fault the bin is full".
Another thing thats been bugging me - last year the council didn't clear the autumn leaf debris, resulting in filthy slippy pavements and blocked gutters and drains, the overflow from which then starts tearing up the road surface and that plus vehicles = potholes galore. (the speed pillows down our road are stacked up with gravel on the uphill sides from the disintegrating tarmac). I keep the drain outside our house clear, and sometimes the one across the road too, but its easy to end up digging out a wheelbarrow full of shit out of them that you then have to dispose of somehow.
The same story is true outside town - one of the faster main roads into Sheffield from the Peak doesn't get the drains cleared, resulting in a year round flood across the road on a poor visibility corner. A couple of years back a pothole opened up and a roadie went down on it and then bounced off a car coming the other way, with "life changing" results. The pothole got filled PDQ, but the drains still didn't get cleared so the hole is back again. I did have a go at a couple of those drains myself, but working solo on a blind bend on a 60mph road is equally likely to have lifechanging results... You can guarantee that drain cleaning is one budget and road fixing is another and never will the two talk to each other, but its just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
For me it was more a case of noticing a lot maintenance not getting done during the pandemic for obvious reasons and me thinking it would go back to normal. This hasn't been the case with many local authorities taking full advantage to turn it into further budget cuts on top of the already shoddy run, skeleton shift, shambles, can't wait to fine people given any opportunity we have foisted on us by our wonderful governments.
Nobody voted for it or asked for it.
Fly tipping has got worse because the government has allowed private sector operators (a few years back now) to use bouncers at tips (introduction of permits) restricting access. They have made the problem worse and we get to pick up the pieces and shoulder the burden, sound familiar!?!
You can guarantee that drain cleaning is one budget and road fixing is another and never will the two talk to each other, but its just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
It's a weird mix of factors - the council contract out the work to whichever private company they use (cos obviously all their in-house people have been sacked to save money). The private contractor does exactly the work listed in the permit, not one iota more or less. So if it says "fill this pothole", they will do exactly that but ignore the other pothole 5 yards away.
No-one ever creates a work permit that says "investigate why there's a pothole here, fill it and make sure it doesn't come back" cos that costs more money and everything at the council is cut to the bone so they can't get permission to spend £5000 on that, they can get permission to spend £2000 on filling the hole. Except the hole comes back every 6 months so in 18 months, it's already cost you more than just doing the job properly in the first place.
So much for austerity and short-term thinking.
